Share this with

Steve Coogan and Will Self have helped Newsnight pull in its highest ratings of 2011 with coverage of the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

Will Self and Steve Coogan joined Emily Maitlis on Newsnight.

On Wednesday night the BBC Two current affairs show hosted by Jeremy Paxman drew in 1.32million viewers during its 10.30pm to 11.20pm airing.

This was followed by a highly successful programme on Friday night which featured actor Steve Coogan, himself a victim of phone hacking, and sesquipedalian writer Will Self.

Newsnight and its high profile guests were much discussed on Twitter.

Richard Harrison said: âI love Will Self…don’t understand a word he says. He just used Glocal to describe communities on the net…clever! #newsnightâ, while Danielle Matthee offered: âAfter not being on twitter for a bit (3 days) I see Will Self was on #newsnight wouldve forgone the pub for that!â

The coverage has brought a boost to Newsnight ratings which have been falling over the last three years, while political debate Question Time, broadcast at the same time on BBC One, also prospered being watched by 3.65 million people on Wednesday night.

With a panel that included actor Hugh Grant the show pulled in a million more viewers than in the previous week.